Right now is a great time to be a basketball fan. NBA enthusiasts are in the middle of what is certainly one of the game's golden ages, full of talented, charismatic superstars and dynamic, history-making teams. LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Carmelo Anthony, Dwight Howard, Chris Bosh, Dwayne Wade and Steve Nash are all among the greatest players of all time, and they're all playing right now.
They're contributing to the game's evolution and destroying records along the way, but there is one particular feat that seems untouchable. On this day in 1962, Wilt "The Stilt" Chamberlain scored 100 points by himself as his Philadelphia Warriors beat the New York Knicks 169-147 in Hershey, Pennsylvania. It was a pretty absurd game for Chamberlain, who put up 63 shots (sinking 36 of them) and took another 32 free throws (making 28). Wilt was a dominant player, but as you can see by the score of the game (which was a regulation game — 48 minutes, no overtime), it was during an era where there wasn't a whole lot of defense being played.
The 100 point game was part of a larger season of insanity for Chamberlin, who scored over 4,000 points over the course of the year, making him the only player to ever cross that barrier. (Consider this: Only one other player has ever scored over 3,000 points in a single season, and that was Michael Jordan.) He also set a record for scoring in an All-Star game (42 points) and played 3,882 of a possible 3,890 total minutes, putting his average at 48.5 minutes per game. (Those eight minutes he didn't play came all at once, when he was ejected for getting two technical fouls in a game.)
Sadly, Wilt didn't win a championship that year, as he was surrounded by a weak supporting cast and couldn't handle the Celtics in the playoffs. (That '62 Celtics team — featuring Bill Russell, Bob Cousy, Sam Jones and Tommy Heinsohn — is considered by some to be the best team ever assembled, so Wilt had an uphill battle.) In honor of his 100 point night, here's Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings with "100 Days, 100 Nights."